Nessie

nessie, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

And so, the lesson learned here is that no matter how straightforward an instruction seems, it's best to look it up beforehand so you don't make a GIANT MESS and have to start over.

At least I have half an idea of how to actually PICK UP STITCHES now. Hee.

She kind of looks like a giant pea pod right now. Needs some flippers or something.

SWEATER

SWEATER, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

I MADE A SWEATER OMG.

Heart Scarf

Heart Scarf, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

You know how sometimes you have yarn that you know what you want to do with it, and yet it keeps not working out right, and you've frogged three scarves with it now, plus it's Malabrigo so it's starting to look a little worn, and you're this far on version four and you want to rip this one out too because you loathe your edge stitches and wish you'd slipped them so you didn't end up with these weird lumpy things?

Yeah. That.

I'm not allowing myself to frog this, but I am making note that I need to slip my edge stitches whenever possible on future projects, because I just can't do them properly.

Now the grey one has a buddy.

pair-o-daleks, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

This should absolve me from ever knitting anything with acrylic and metal dpns, like, ever.

Infinity.

Shopping!

I thought I had kicked the BPAL obsession to a mostly benign level—but it turns out, I've just replaced them with Knit Picks.

My Harmony Options arrived yesterday, which made yesterday easily the most exciting day of the week so far! I quickly assembled the 8's onto a 36" cord, and started knitting Arwen (which has grown far beyond what my 12" straights can handle). About four stitches in, I realized I had a serious problem. One of the tips had a teeeeeny nick in it which was causing the yarn to catch. Serious bummer. This was the only project I wanted to use these needles on for the moment, and I couldn't use them!

This morning I called (according to their site, their phone hours are between 5am and 6pm PT Monday through Friday, 6am - 5pm Saturday, oh woe for the rep who has to go to work at FIVE AYEM, that is not even an hour I'm sure exists on this planet) and explained the situation, and was told a new set of 8's would be sent to me. I can keep the bad pair, which is nice because there is still one good tip, and I had kind of taken to using it as a cable needle last night. Since I had them on the phone, I ordered that pretty pretty purple yarn, about five color cards, and the Harmony Wood cable needles also.

Before I called, I had picked out everything I wanted and put it in an online cart. This turned out to be useful, I think, because the rep asked me for item numbers first, and then confirmed descriptions. So, a tip if you phone in your order: Have the item numbers handy.

In conclusion: Beth at the Lab, if you were wondering why I haven't ordered any smelly things lately— that's why. Sorry! My TKO is getting down to the last third, so it'll be time for a re-order soon.

Next project.

As a bit of incentive to finish Arwen, I am going to allow myself to order this Cadena (in the gloriously rich Heath), which will be used to make this Vine Lace Top Down Cardigan. I must be very careful to not drool too much, or felting could unwittingly occur. I also want some color cards which should be back in stock on Friday.

It is complete agony waiting until Friday to place this order. Agony!

I am somewhere on month 4 of working on Arwen, so I am hoping that a sweater knit in bulky weight will go much more quickly. In the meantime... I'm still knitting SLEEVES. They never end!

Daleks in Love

Daleks in Love, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

I'm excited to be nearing the end of Pinky the Dalek!

I may need to someday take the bottom off of the grey one and add more stuffing. The under-stuffingness on that one has always bothered me.

Finished Bag

bag closeup, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

I had to use every little bit of yarn to get the bag finished, but it's done and it's a perfect fit to the Knitting Tarot deck. Take that, gauge.

I just stumbled upon this adorable vintage pattern. But, vintage! Will I be able to find the book?

Easier than I thought, actually. The first google return on Coats & Clark Book #140, Sweaters and Accessories turned up a buy-it-now on ebay for $1.25 and $1 shipping. It took me longer to remember my ebay password, reset it, and sign in.

What is this 'gauge' you speak of.

Gauge, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

I was knitting my plain ol' shiney scarf when I glanced over and saw my Knitting Tarot, which has long been on my list of "things to knit a cozy/sweater for." (Other things on list: myself, cats, wine bottles, teapot, Helo.)

The traditional meaning of this card, Justice, goes something like this: "With Libra as its ruling sign, Justice is about cold, objective balance through reason or natural force." The Knitting Tarot meaning of this card, well, I didn't read it in the book because "BLOODY, SODDING MATHS" sums it up exactly. Gauge is not my friend. We are not on speaking terms. Every time we converse, I consider taking out a restraining order. So it went something like this:

"OH HELLS NO. You know, that deck is pretty big, I'm just gonna throw a bunch o' stitches on there and see what happens, and ... yeah I think if it works out, I'll take it as a sign that gauge can BITE MY SHINEY METAL ASS."

I have about 8 rounds done now, and so on my break at work I stretched it out a bit on the DPNs and took stock. It seemed big. Hmmmm. Now I can't even remember how big the deck is. This could be trouble! But, it's okay. I have the internets! Maybe there are dimensions at the Knitting Tarot website? And what do you know, THERE WERE! Rawk. Except, those numbers just didn't seem right to me. The deck is taller when stacked, right? I forget. It's TALL. I can't even shuffle it properly. But the numbers on the website (3.5 x 1.75) were not even close to what I'd done so far, nearly 16" in diameter. I called the roomie.

"Please go upstairs and measure my tarot deck."
"Okay. *pause* It's 1 and five-eighths high."
"FRAK!!!"

YOU WIN AGAIN, GAUGE.

But actually, I think this will be okay. I'll do a couple more rows, and then decrease a little. This will make the top, above the drawstring, a little ruffley. Which is what I totally meant to do in the first place!

Silky Yarn

Silky Yarn, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

I picked up a skein of this yarn over the weekend. It's a 100% spun silk with European glass beads. It's so soft. Unbelievably soft. And silky. It reduces you to "Oooh, soft. Pritty. Shiney." when you touch it.

Because sometimes you're knitting a sweater and it just keeps going and going and going and you need something else, something small, in the meantime or else you'll just be knitting a sweater from now til 2015.

Casey has a sweatuh

Casey has a sweatuh, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

I think he actually likes it.

Unsuspecting.

Poor Casey, he has no idea.

I'm taking a break from Arwen to whip this up quickly. Arwen, meanwhile, is finished on the left side, and about halfway on the back. I guess at this point I could say - HALF DONE OMG. Since it's been in progress for two months, I'll give myself lots of padding and say it'll be done in four months.

Arwen part whatever

Arwen part whatever, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

I have now managed to goof up the cable FOUR TIMES. So, whatever. It always seems to fix itself, and it's not blaringly obvious. I don't think, anyway.

I am going to HAWAII tomorrow, which means I will have a lot of time to knit on the planes. This project is kind of too complicated to wrangle in an airplane seat, but I really really really want to keep moving on it. Also it requires a cable needle, three different cheat sheets I'm using plus the pattern, a measuring tape, pencil, stitch markers, cutting apparatus, and I'm already carrying on my laptop and my SLR camera + lenses. TOO MUCH STUFF. Then I remembered the back. The back is a large, simple stockinette rectangle without even any increases or decreases. So, that is what is all bunched up there on that shorter needle. It is ready for takeoff! Two skeins of yarn, two needles. Much easier to deal with.

Arwen part eleventy.

arwen11ty.jpg, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

I managed to put all the stockinette back on a thinner circular needle, then carefully ripped back, repositioning the cable sections back on the needles one stitch at a time. This whole process took about a half hour, much much faster than backwards-knitting all 1500 of those wrong stitches.

And I'm very glad I did so, because it looks like it's going to be a perfect fit AND it will knit faster—that's three whole other sleeve sections I will not have to increase.

The instructions say to graft the cuff together to form a seamless cable. but that was not going to happen ever. After several frustrating attempts to come up with 24 stitches to put back on the needle from the cast-on edge, I finally decided hay I think it will be alright if my sweater has seams. Seams happen.

1,452

That is approximately how many stitches I am backwards-knitting of Arwen, because apparantly I do not need to widen the arms any further and I'm terrified to just frog it to the point before I added all those stitches. So, no pic because it was further along than the last pic, but now it's just further along less than before with more to go backwards on.

(Huh?)

CABLES

CABLES, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

Scarf: Cabled. Yarn: Malabrigo. Needles: METAL man I hate metal.

Since I can do about two or three rows per day on my "breaks" without getting interrupted by people DEMANDING to know what is wrong with the color printer, I can only hope this will be done sometime before next December.

Quidditch Sweater

Quidditch Sweater, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

I love this yarn, it's just Cascade 220 but it's this great obnoxious pink/red color, and the green is equally blinding. The pattern seemed simple enough, but the arm pictured is way too long and that was after I redid it without the cuff! I'll try it one more time using MATHS to reduce the number of rows, and if that doesn't work I'll just have to frog this sucker. I guess it could be a felted bag or something.

Arwen

Arwen, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

There should be 158 stitches across now, I'm actually afraid to count it. It takes 15 minutes to do one row.

Branching off

Branching off, originally uploaded by jen.fotos.

I am frogging this because I keep screwing up rows 3 and 5 of the lace pattern. I don't know WHY I keep screwing them up. I can't even see the mistakes! But I'm afraid it will turn into a giant mess if I keep going, and I've had no luck knitting back.

Also, I would rather have cables.